


Another Time Dilemma

by 6textania



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Rewrite, ZTD SPOILERS, meddling espers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:29:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28959498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6textania/pseuds/6textania
Summary: Nine people awake to find themselves trapped within a facility in the middle of a desert. Six of them must die; six billion could die. Who to kill? Who will survive?This is the Decision Project.The fate of mankind rests on their decision.(A Zero Time Dilemma rewrite)
Relationships: (IMPLIED), Diana/Sigma Klim, Kurashiki Akane/Tenmyouji Junpei, Kurashiki Aoi & Tenmyouji Junpei
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> What would ztd be like if the teams were different? What if different relationships between characters were explored? What ever happened to my guy aoi? These were just a handful of the questions I considered in boredom, and so I put those ideas into a rewrite. I love ztd but man, aliens? A new story as a rewrite of the most polarising zero escape entry with some things different, some things the same, and twists pulled out of the morphogenetic field. I should mention that gab isnt in this story (I apologise on my behalf) and there are new escape rooms befitting a mars mission test site [huge issue for me was why were they moved to a bomb shelter] 
> 
> Enter once fully completing ztd. Life is simply funfair!

* * *

_  
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Why did… these six die?

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_

_  
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I guess you could say… I killed them.

_  
_

_  
_

Not just them… Not just these six…

_  
_

_  
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All six billion.

_  
_

* * *

#### 

[COINCIDE: 07:50]

Carlos awoke with a sniff. He blinked clouds and sleep out of his eyes, then came to a surprise that jolted him alert. "Where... am I?"

A soft hum, a bump, and the angry scowl of a woman. "That hurts." She had hit her head against something, audibly, though Carlos couldn't see what. 

He himself struggled in this space he was bound to, to what looks like a seatbelt that toddlers had for safety across his torso. Left and right, walls were in head's reach for bumping against. If he'd guessed correctly, that was probably the aggressor against the woman. A glass window rounded to an ovular dome encapsuled him into this unwelcoming vertical bed.

Beyond, the walls were icy-white, plated with white tiles that looked more like an asylum than a bathroom…

 _Click_. The struggle of the woman had also went to a pause, if not a stop, as Carlos spotted a round head in the corner gleaming against the now-dim walls, like some orbiting planet in space--

_[...psychological experiment…]_

He shook his head, knocking a forehead to the wall. 

"Hey, anyone there?" The woman. Carlos answered back, scrunching his face. "Yeah, me. I'm stuck in this shuttle-looking thing."

A sigh. Of relief or of irritation, Carlos couldn't tell. "Me too. So, who's folding up the light switch?"

The head turned in response, the walls set to the piercing white that it was, and revealed the details of a head you wouldn't find on a human. Or an animal of any kind. It was some sort of spherical helmet, rusted in the left air hole at the top, and all of it a dirty white colour faintly reminding Carlos of old, tinged bones you see in movies. "Hey you! You know what's going on?"

The head bobbed in shock at first, little hands raised to cup the sides of the helmet. A child, somewhere around ten years of age. "N-No! I just woke up!"

"It's not good to lie," the woman, voice located somewhere to Carlos' left, spoke with a tut. "I wouldn't mind if you just admit this is some rich kid's vlogging prank, or whatever."

"I-I don't know! I just woke up in that shuttle, and tried walking around for a bit--"

"Haha." A flat laugh. "There, kiddo, you've got your reaction. Now, let me free."

"Woah, woah." Carlos softly broke into the argument-to-be, the small, shaking legs of the child halting in attention. "I don't know about you, but before we start bullying each other, I'd kinda like to know what you lot know." the woman considered it as a hum in the back of her throat. Not as confirmation, but as acknowledgement.

"I'm Mira. Just a lady who woke up from her beauty sleep in this transparent coffin of mine, as you do." a pause, as Carlos waited for her to continue. "I don't… hey, do you guys remember some sort of white gas?"

_["Pleasant dreams."]_  
_[Suddenly, white gas cloaked his sight. Carlos gasped in shock and felt his eyes gravitate shut.]_

"T-The mask! The masked guy!" Carlos widened his eyes as he remembered a glimpse of a strange figure. Some sort of cloaked person, donning a gas mask, hitting him with a gaseous anaesthetic drug.

Mira responded. "So you remember too…" she stopped as she waited for the child to confirm, or deny.

"I… can't remember anything. My name, why I'm here…"

"Not even your name?" Carlos squinted his eyes, listening to Mira's quiet note to herself. "An amnesiac", she said. "Must've been a lot of Soporil."

"Y…? As in the letter, I can remember that. I… suppose I'm Y, then." The kid shrugged. Y. "What a peculiar name", sighed Mira.

"That leaves you. Your name?" Carlos responded to her question. "Carlos. I'm a firefighter."

"Ooh, a hero of justice." Mira's voice had traces of curiosity. Carlos rolled his eyes with a blush. "Well, do firefighters and amnesiac kids know anything about this watch?"

Carlos glanced to his left arm. Sure enough, he also wore a watch. It had a square face, and was matte black. Y vocalised this, along with Carlos. "Why… why are we all wearing these, anyway?" said Y, glancing around the room. "And where even are we…?"

Buzzing suddenly filled the ceiling, bouncing off the walls and taking their attention. Whatever more questions they needed to ask will have to wait.

"Play the game. The Nonary Game."

Not that anyone really knew what the voice meant… It was strictly low, low that it was definitely distorted. Perhaps to hide their identity. Regardless, all three of them inclined to listen in silence.

"Each of you have found yourselves strapped in a space shuttle. A simulation shuttle. I hope you've all had a good rest, and introduced yourselves." A pause. Carlos could only hear his own stifling breaths. "Now, it is time. You have 9 minutes to escape before I stop the air systems to your quarters, which would of course cause you all to suffocate. Best of luck."

Carlos was surprised to see himself as the first one to stir in panic. "What the fuck!"

#### 

[SEEK A WAY OUT]

"That man said these were 'simulation shuttles'… what does that mean?" chirped Y, who for whatever reason wasn't questioning the dooming countdown at hand, spinning to look between Carlos and Mira. Mira responded, the rolling-of-eyes apparent in her speech. "Perhaps these are like training shuttles. For astronauts training to go to space."

_[...simulating a manned mission to Mars…]_

Mira clicked her tongue. "To be honest, getting launched into space sounds better than whatever we got ourselves into. Carlos, did you get into some sort of one-night stand mistake?"

"N-No time for that!" The air around Carlos grew sickly humid as his quick breaths condensed on the walls. Not a good time to panic. "Kid, how the hell did you manage to get out of the shuttle!"

"M-My seatbelt thingy wasn't locked on, so I just slid out…" Y wobbled to point in a direction. To the left of Mira, Carlos presumed, was the open shuttle.

"That doesn't help!"

"I-I know!"

"Y," Mira cut in, with refreshingly calm clarity "is there anything you can examine? Like your shuttle, or the outside of it."

Y acted upon it, quickly retiring to and returning from the shuttle. "There was this lock fallen to the side of it… and as you've seen, a light switch is over there." "A lock but no key…" Carlos lamented and sucked in his fears. The lock itself was quite big, big against the small of a child's hand. "Why would I need a lock? I think these shuttles open by card," the child pointed to the card reader beside each shuttle.

Y then ran to the switch. "I'll go turn off the lights. Maybe that will show something…" The white grew dim, dimmer, until it halted on darkness. Flecks of light blushed the walls, simulating stars. Atmospheric, almost poetic, if they weren't going to die.

Carlos looked around him. Darkness, but a strange tone to it. He inhaled quickly as he spotted the faint green glow of scrawls to the right of his face. "There's like, a buncha symbols here. I've got no idea what they mean…!" He could see the male and female symbol, something like a female symbol with horns...

"Oh yeah? I have some numbers. 129450789. That is certainly a big one." Mira then expressed distaste over potentially having glowing paint on the side of her head from an awakening injury. Priorities in place.

"…A calculator?" Y collected it at the base of Mira's shuttle. "By the way, Mira. I don't think any part of you got glow-painted." A sigh. Of relief, most likely.

"What if you try combining that calculator with the lock somehow?" Carlos recommended, a tremor in his voice. Y twisted the lock, finding a port to connect the dangling wire of the device. "Ah! There!"

"Plug something in, that probably unlocks it." added Mira. "In a sense, those calculator keys could unlock the lock." It was too dark to see the buttons, so Y skipped and rose the light intensity. A humming sound, of considerate thinking. "These aren't numbers…" Y walked towards Carlos, helmet down to the calculator-and-lock. "Carlos, those symbols are the symbols of planets. Like, the female one means Venus. It's the same as the calculator."

Mira applauded the child with a hum. "And at your age, too." Not that Carlos was jealous that he himself, a twenty-five-year-old, couldn't work it out himself. Who reads about planet symbols in this day and age? Y continued. "So, you've got the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto."

"…What in the Milky Way Galaxy does that mean?"

Y gave him a shrug, then typed something into the calculator. "It's not correct in that order, anyway." It was silent for a few moment afterwards. Carlos didn't like it, for in his head there was still the ticking sound of the countdown to doom. A sound of flurrying plastic hitting the floor. "I knew it…"

"The numbers and symbols are connected. I just had to correspond the planets to a number. For instance, 1=Mercury, 2=Venus, and 9=Pluto. 0 would be the Sun."

After explaining and bowing the helmet in joy, Y picked up the cards that came out of the lock. There were 3 of them, each of them bearing the symbol of...

"Let's go! Go!"

Mira agreed with Carlos, nodding to Y, who moved forward. "Got it!"

With a hiss, the two adults crawled out of their shuttles. Carlos had barely managed to keep conscious and not pass out in panic, like an animal playing dead before a threat. Mira looked fairly neutral, merely examining the wristband of her watch. Once out, Mira looked to be examining Carlos' appearance, though Carlos was too nervous to stare back. It wasn't because of her beauty, or anything silly...

"Hm. You look fairly young for a firefighter."

"There's no need to stereotype..."

"Guys? I think we should get moving..." Y interrupted, cupping the helmet's sides.

However, there was no door in sight. How can you escape a locked room when there's no door? Carlos whirled to look around the room. The shuttles, the abandoned lock-and-calculator, the white tiles covering the floor and walls. They laughed at his panic.

"Did we forget something? Anything?" asked Mira, though it was more of a speak-or-die demand.

Carlos opened his mouth to talk back, but whatever he tried to say died in the back of his mouth as he clamped his teeth shut in a grimace. Surely, it was well over half of the time limit. Hardly any time to panic, or reason, or do anything.

_Click._

The floor from under Carlos opened, and he fell. It wasn't too far down, especially for his build, but he still grimaced. "Ah, there's the exit." nonchalant as ever was Mira, guiding the surprised Y down the ladder that Carlos had missed.

#### 

[YOU FOUND IT]

"A-Are you okay?" Y patted his shoulder. He nodded in response, both glad that they had escaped and yet annoyed that there was no warning for the exit, and that Mira seemed to not care. A woman with horns, just like the symbol for Mercury.

"Man, where are we..?"

Carlos stumbled towards the far wall of the new room -- or, more accurately, a wall of bars.

"Hey! Is anybody there!?"

As Carlos shouted out to seemingly nobody, Y stared at the plastic cards. One of them was never used, since Y was already able to leave the shuttle. On all three of them were the symbols of Mars. If they were to indicate gender, then the cards were definitely inaccurate, and based on the astrological theme of their earlier imprisonment...

"H-Hello!" shouted a new voice, one that Carlos, Mira and Y hadn't known. There was another group of three, whom had just arrived down the ladder, also behind bars in a separated room.

The woman that shouted out to Carlos had bright red hair and freckles across the bridge of her nose. As she clutched the metal bars in hopes that it would somehow break, they could see a black watch on her left wrist.

"H-Huh...? A young child?" she had noticed the helmeted amnesiac, bringing light to the fact that such a young child had been put into this dangerous situation.

"If this is what I think it is..." A man that was with her spoke up, arms crossed. He had disheveled brown hair, tired eyes, and wore a face of disgust. "Fucking hell, I'm sick of playing these games..."

Their third member sat up to look out the bars, and his face had a brief look of shock. He squinted his grey-blue eyes, still held aback. "Mira?"

Mira perked her sights to the man, and raised a brow. "Eric?" she sighed, an unreadable face made, as some drew their attention to their apparent connection.

The tired man spoke up, not caring about Eric and Mira's relationship, but rather, something else. "I think there's still some people trapped up there. That room is still empty..." he pointed to an identical room alike to their own, complete with bars, as if all three of these rooms were designated for confinement.

"Wait, so you mean...?" Carlos furrowed his brow. Why were at least six of them brought here, made to wear these black watches, and forced to play some sort of messed-up game? His face grew pale.

"If that's the case, then the air vents...!" the red-head gasped in grave realisation, remembering the time limit that voice gave them. 9 minutes.

On cue, the third ceiling -- or floor -- opened, a slender girl falling out of it, though she had caught onto the ladder mere inches before hitting the ground. Then, two men followed.

"That's nine of us." smirked the tired man, especially giving the evil-eye to the shorter of the two men in the new group of three.

"It's nice to see you too," the man responded, nonchalantly brushing white hair out of his cold eyes. The three of them also had those watches.

As much as it would've been lovely to exchange the information they had regarding the whole situation, a figure in the most ridiculous getup Carlos had ever seen entered the space between the three rooms.

"Play the game. The Nonary Game: Decision Project."

His voice was masked with a voice changer, deep and rumbling through the bars. It was clearly some sort of plague doctor costume, made out of indigo crushed velvet, concealing his entire body.

"Life is simply unfair, don't you think?"

Nobody dared to respond. Nobody knew how to respond.

"There are moments when a single snail can make the world go extinct."

The slender girl with white hair put a thumb to her chin. "A single snail...?"

"What the hell are you talking about!" said another, the man that Mira was familiar with. "Who are you!?"

The plague doctor responded, sights never turning to respond to the man face-to-face. "I am Zero II. Although, I am sure you will eventually determine who I truly am."

"Why are you doing this...?" quivered Y, hands balled into small fists.

"I require all of you to take part in my game. With the fate of you, me, and the human race hanging in the balance."

"Fuck that!" the dark-haired, muscled man spat.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

Zero pulled out a coin, turning it side-to-side to show off the red and blue faces of it. He flicked it into the air with his thumb, and the coin turned. Turning, turning, turning as it fell... then bouncing off the floor with two clangs, before being concealed by Zero stepping over it.

"One side of it is red, while the other side is blue. Which side of the coin is facing up? Make a guess. However... you only get one chance."

"Do we get something if we get it right?" 

Zero responded to the muscled man's question. "Your freedom. I promise that I will release all of you. And if you are wrong... you all lose. You will have to take part in the Decision Project. Carlos, it's your decision to make."

"What...?"

"I'll trust him, then!"

"Go with blue!"

"Red! It's red!"

Mira rolled her eyes through the commotion. "I don't really care what you choose. It can't be helped, can it? I'd say a fifty-fifty chance is a pretty fair opportunity."

"What a fuckin' situation we're in..." said the white-haired man, as he returned to converse with the other two in his cell.

"You shifty little...! Hey, Aoi! How about you share with the rest of the class!" the tired man looked a little awake with anger, or adrenaline. The white-haired man, apparently called Aoi, did not respond.

"All we can do is make our decision now," Y whispered. "There's... nothing we can do when we're like this."

"You're right." agreed Carlos, rising from the slump he had onto the bars. He looked to his palms, marks left where the metal had pressed against it, and balled them up.

"Time to decide, Carlos..." said Zero, initiating the arguments between the 9 of them to die quickly. "Is it red? Or is it blue?"

"It's..."

#### 

[TIME TO DECIDE]

"Blue."

The plague doctor lifted his heel, revealing the coin.

"Unfortunately, that is the wrong answer."

Red.

The face of the coin was red.

"You've got to be kidding!" Eric quivered, his voice a small shout.

"God damn it..." the white-haired girl looked to the ground, gritting her teeth.

"A 50% chance... and it was incorrect." 

Carlos lifted his head to Zero's voice. Sound drained out once again.

"Life is simply unfair."

He felt a jab in his left wrist, and his whole body gave out, consciousness flowing out of focus like the ripples in water.

"When next you wake, you will be in the Nonary Game..."

"...Pleasant dreams."

Around him, bodies fell softly as Soporil swam in their veins. Carlos, hand clambering to reach out to the plague doctor, muttered numbly. "I know... you are..." ...before his body was overcome with the dread of sleep.

* * *

#### 

[BEFORE THE GAME: 06:00]

Christmas Morning, 2028.

Carlos had said goodbye to Maria, and then set for Nevada. To the middle of the desert, where the test facility will be. He was among the participants that signed up for the psychological experiment simulating a manned mission to Mars...

6 days of isolation from society in the middle of nowhere. As much as he will surely miss the Christmas festivities, Carlos promised that he will definitely call in for the New Year. Even promising that by the time he's out, the moon will still be red from the eclipse on the 31st.

As the Dcom staff drove up to the facility, he heard a sound of hissing.

"Pleasant dreams."

Suddenly, white gas cloaked his sight. Carlos gasped in shock and felt his eyes gravitate shut.

The last thing he saw was a cloaked figure, donning a gas mask.

* * *

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This is the Decision Project.

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What will you decide?

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* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *the amnesiac child is called Y in this universe


	2. Chapter 2

#### 

[C-TEAM LOUNGE: 09:00]

"Well, if it isn't Zero himself!"

Carlos was awakened by the shout of a man. Or, rather, the bickering between two men.

"Would you care to explain yourself, Aoi Kurashiki!?"

"I told you," responded Aoi, stepping towards the tired-looking man. "I've got nothin' to do with this shit. But your hero complex can't understand that, huh?"

"Good morning to you guys, too." Carlos rubbed the back of his head, walking between the two.

The brown-haired man of the three didn't seem to hear him. "I bet Akane's hanging around here somewhere. Maybe we can drink to our _pleasant_ reunion!"

"You don't fuckin' understand, Tenmyouji."

"Guys," the blond man, feeling as if he was third-wheeling the argument, waved his hands "hello?"

"If it isn't our hero, Carlos!" the man, likely named Tenmyouji, threw his hands up. "What? What the fuck did you want me to say, after that whole coin crap!"

He looked to the floor, dejected. "Sorry for not being psychic, then..."

"Let's cut to the crap." Aoi cleared his throat, cutting a glare to Tenmyouji. "It's only the three of us in this lounge-lookin' place. Says so on the map." he held out a piece of paper, mapping the facility.

_[Dwelling for the Cohabitation of Mars...]_

"So I guess the other six've been moved to their own lounges. What a nice Mars Mission experiment."

"Dcom..." muttered Carlos. His eyes were drawn to the red words splattered on the wall.

"[NOW A BROKE HEART SHIFTS]"

Whatever that meant.

"Uh-huh. If you remember being knocked out after arriving to this hellhole, then I guess this is the Dcom experiment itself." Tenmyouji rolled his eyes. "You know, I was in luck when I heard a certain Kurashiki popped up around here. Even more so when we're locked up in this game together!"

The sound of radio static cut through the heavy air. A plague doctor appeared on the screen of an old TV, the very man that had locked them in here, always saying how life was unfair...

"I trust that you have all been well."

Zero.

"All 9 of you have woken up in your individual wards... and those are the wards that you will remain in for the rest of the game. Each of you have been put into a team of 3.

C-Team... Carlos, Junpei, Aoi.  
M-Team... Mira, Eric, Phi.  
Y-Team... Y, Diana, Sigma.

Now... for my game rules."

Carlos had sat down on one of the couches beside the screen, Tenmyouji -- or, Junpei -- watched from close by. Aoi, though the furthest away, stared intently at Zero with a sort of cold hatred.

"You will all be given an active time of 90 minutes. That is your time limit before the bracelets you are wearing will inject you with Soporil anaesthetic... a particularly heavy dosage at that. It's very likely that most of your memories in those 90 minutes will be erased as a side effect. These bracelets also function as watches."

With truth to those words, Carlos could hardly remember the first mistake he had made in Zero's game. The coin flip. Everything around that felt like a dream, and not a good one.

Junpei twisted his face at Aoi, with a look of anger at the word Soporil.

"This game will not end until 6 of you die."

There was a solemn silence between them. 6 deaths. A game of life-and-death. A game where 6 people have to be sacrificed for 3 to live.

"With every death, an IX-Pass will be revealed. 6 of them must be obtained to open the IX-Door. It will open only once, and for 9 seconds... and it is your only way out of this facility."

Sure enough, there was a large door at the back, the letters "IX" painted on it in red. As far as Aoi tried with brute force, it did not open.

"Now, it is time for a game. Your first opportunity to sacrifice... or survive."

The plague doctor faded away from the screen. In his place, was a screen that said "[EXECUTION VOTE]". However, his voice remained.

"You will be given 90 minutes to make your decision. Which team will you sacrifice? Which team will live? A team will be sacrificed if there are 2 votes against them. Abstaining from voting will automatically result in two votes against you. I wish you all the best of luck."

...

...

Minutes had passed, and little progress was made with the decision at hand. After introducing themselves, though still remaining on estranged terms, they returned back to the TV.

"Is this guy one of your stock partners?" Junpei folded his arms behind his head, seemingly relaxed in the tense air.

"With all the Soporil I've been exposed to, I guess I'm pretty resistant to it." Aoi chose to ignore the other man's dark jokes. It was no time to start a petty argument. "I can tell you that these bracelets've quite a lot of that shit."

A thousand questions ran through Carlos' mind. He didn't know what to ask, what to say, and what to think in general.

"You guys seem pretty familiar with each other."

"You've got that right, Carlos." Junpei flattened his lips. "We met a year ago. But really, I guess he's been keeping track of me for ten years."

"Look, you know why I had to do it." Aoi was frustrated, but kept his stance. "If my sister died, would that be better?"

"You definitely have something to do with this fucking Decision Project. What are you gonna do, create a paradox?"

"Right," Carlos sighed "we're not getting anywhere with this. We should choose who to vote for."

"If only there's a way to communicate with the others. Then, we could spread out the votes." Aoi walked up to the screen. As the situation stands, their choice, survival, sins, are up to luck and chance.

"Why not use your psychic powers, or whatever?" Junpei said dryly. "With those guys. What was the guy's name... Sigmund?"

Aoi rolled his eyes. "Carlos, I leave this decision to you."

There was no other choice.

Carlos had vaguely remembered the people he woke up in the shuttle room with. Mira and Y. Would they trust him? Does he trust them?

It wasn't a game of trust. It was a game of fate.

As he stood before the screen, he made his choice.

#### 

[TIME TO DECIDE]

The screen flashed. 

"[Y-TEAM]"

"[YOUR VOTE HAS BEEN REGISTERED]"

"Y, Diana, Sigma..." Aoi muttered.

Junpei folded his arms. "I hope you got lucky with that one."

"As a prize for your cooperation, you will remember the choice you made."

Without time to respond to Zero, Carlos felt the nip in his wrist of the Soporil drugs being injected into his veins, and then there were three thumps of falling bodies.

Zero spoke, as low as static.

"Pleasant dreams."

...

...

#### 

[M-TEAM LOUNGE: 09:00]

_["This game will not end until 6 of you die."]_

Those words echoed in Mira's head long after the announcement finished. "A death game, huh?"

Not only that, but they had been served their first opportunity to get 3 IX-Passes.

Eric seemed to be panicking internally, thinking to himself as he massaged the gap between his eyebrows. Phi, sitting across from him, simply folded her arms in silence.

Mira walked over to them, thinking of a way to start a conversation. "Who is Zero?" 

"Good question." Phi answered. "But there's a time and place for everything. Is this really a good time to be asking?"

"I was wondering about Zero's peculiar choice of words," Mira pursed her lips. "He said [6 of you]. Sure, it might just be a poor choice of words, but it sounds as if there's more than just the 9 of us."

Eric shrugged. "I don't get it." He never does.

"What I mean is, is Zero one of us 9?"

Phi hummed in thought, deciding on what to say and what not. "I think it's possible."

"And why's that?"

She did not respond to Mira's further curiosities, simply leaning her hand into her white hair in boredom.

"This Zero guy," Eric spat "is one sick bastard. Even a young child had been forced into this game."

"If this Zero is one of us..." Mira sat at the other end of Eric's couch. "...it would make sense to think there wasn't just 9 of us."

"I don't think we can find Zero at this rate," responded Phi. "Well, unless you are the one behind all this crap."

"Me? Ha, no." laughed Mira. "Remember when we were knocked out? We saw Zero walk up to us."

"It could've been, like, a sidekick or something," Eric gave a wry smile. "to make you think that way."

"Sidekicks? Have you been reading too many superhero comics?"

As she was left on the outskirts of Mira and Eric's conversation, Phi gazed to the words on the wall.

"[LET'S INHIBIT THE VIRUS!]"

And then Phi thought about the virus.

"Well, that's almost 90 minutes up." Mira looked to her bracelet, and rose to the front of the screen. "I'll choose, now'"

"It's all based on luck. We won't know what the others will choose." Eric wobbled to his feet. "Good luck, Mira."

#### 

[TIME TO DECIDE]

The screen flashed.

"[C-TEAM]"

"[YOUR VOTE HAS BEEN REGISTERED]"

"Them, huh...?" Phi mumbled. "That would be Carlos, Junpei, and Aoi..."

"Let's hope we are still alive after this," Eric gulped with a wry laugh.

"As a prize for your cooperation, you will remember the choice you made."

Mira spun to Zero's voice, and felt the sharp of the needles making her entire body numb. They all collapsed, quickly falling to a deep slumber.

Zero spoke, soft and quiet.

"Pleasant dreams."

...

...

#### 

[Y-TEAM LOUNGE: 09:00]

"There's got to be a way to communicate with the other teams!"

Sigma's voice rung throughout the lounge. Earlier, he had wanted to be left alone as soon as the announcement finished, intensely thinking to himself by the bar counter. "Shit, pick up the fucking phone, Phi..." he had mumbled under his breath. Now, he gathered Diana and Y to discuss ways to spread out the votes."

"Sigma, I don't think there's any possible way..." Diana started, clasping her hands. "No matter how loud we shout, they're not gonna hear."

"H-Hey! I found an air vent!"

The two adults spun to Y, who managed to remove the vent cover. Although, it was clearly far too small for anyone to fit through.

"If we can remove that helmet of yours, then maybe..."

"What are you suggesting!" Diana responded. "A small child shouldn't be in this sick game, let alone crawling around in dusty air vents."

"H-Hey, I was kidding..." Sigma sighed, dejected. As Diana gave him a reassuring smile to show she somewhat knew and was playing along, his own smile was bittersweet.

"Um... if we rocket-power a message up here... do you think they'll get it?" Y suggested, though clearly joking.

"Rocket-power? A kid your age using words like that?" Sigma patted Y's helmet like a proud parent. "They grow up so fast."

"Do you think those words are some sort of clue?" the red-head pointed to the far wall.

"[WHEN A CURIOUS HATE OOZES CALAMITY]"

Sigma walked up to it, holding a fist. "It's likely an anagram... Zero, you bastard."

"Anagram?" Y chirped. "O-Oh, its almost the end of the 90 minutes!"

As soon as attention was drawn to their bracelets, the three of them returned to the screen.

"We're gonna have to rely purely on chance." Sigma put a hand to his temple. "Shit, I don't like this..."

"Language, Sigma! Family-friendly!"

Sigma and Diana laughed.

"I guess I'll have to make my choice..." Y shivered. Luck? Chance? It wasn't as straightforward as the chance of getting head or tails (or, red or blue) in a coin flip.

#### 

[TIME TO DECIDE]

The screen flashed.

"[C-TEAM]"

"[YOUR VOTE HAS BEEN REGISTERED]"

"I-I know Carlos did get the coin flip wrong, but really..." mumbled Diana.

"Hey, it was either C-Team or M-Team." Sigma responded. "Well, we can only hope that nobody dies."

"As a prize for your cooperation, you will remember the choice you made."

Y flinched as Zero's voice reappeared, and soon the pain of the injection followed. They all collapsed into a sleep they couldn't fight.

Zero spoke, echoing through the lounge.

"Pleasant dreams."

...

...

#### 

[C-TEAM EXECUTION: 10:45]

"No, no, no, NO, _NO!_ "

Carlos screamed at the top of his lungs, banging on warm iron. He screamed over and over, his voice breaking.

Junpei curled his fists, shaking. "Zero! _ZERO!_ "

Aoi shivered, eyes wide and watery. He was frozen to the spot, as if every muscle in his body turned to lead. His knuckles burned from banging on the walls. Everything burned.

"[Incineration will begin in...]"

Tears drenched Aoi's face. _"PLEASE, NO!"_

"[3...]"

"[2...]"

"May you rest in peace. Audentem Forsque Venusque iuvat."

"[...1.]"

And three cries burned to ashes.

...

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Latin Phrase:  
> "Audentem Forsque Venusque iuvat"
> 
> "Both love and luck help the bold"


End file.
